Dr. John Harvey
Medical Reserve Corps
President George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corps to foster a culture of citizenship and responsibility. The Citizen Corps is the component of USA Freedom Corps, which creates local opportunities for individuals to volunteer to help their communities prepare for and respond to emergencies.
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is the component of the Citizen Corps that brings together local health professionals, community volunteers to provide support services, and others with relevant skills. The MRC is a national network of volunteers – organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities.
It comprises 993 community-based units and more than 200,000 volunteers located throughout the U.S. Georgia has 18 approved MRC. MRC volunteers include medical and public health professionals, as well as other community members without health care backgrounds. The MRC prepare for and respond to natural disasters, such as wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, and floods, as well as
other emergencies affecting public health, such as disease outbreaks.
MRC frequently support community health activities that promote healthy habits. MAG Medical Reserve Corps With the approval of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) and the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) developed the nation’s first medical society-sponsored statewide volunteer MRC. The MAG MRC is training physicians to respond to declared emergencies in Georgia.
The MAG MRC coordinates the deployment of physicians during such emergencies. MAG MRC units are capable of setting up mobile hospital systems. And under extreme circumstances (e.g., a shortage of health care providers in a given area), MAG MRC units can perform some of the functions that would otherwise be performed by the full-time emergency medical response personnel in the state.
Physicians and other volunteers must register on the “Georgia Responds: State Emergency Registry of Volunteers in Georgia” (SERVGA) – www.servga.gov – before they can serve as a MAG MRC volunteer.
